Good Enough
by LadyRhain
Summary: One of Terra's kids gets into a fight at school...She can't carry the beaten child home so it's a good thing Sabin came to visit that day...I can't really say more, you'll just have to read it. :


Her new house in Tzen was quiet but, then again, that had been her life recently…

She had allowed the children of Mobliz that were under the age seven to be adopted by couples, mainly couples that had lost their own children after Kefka turned the world upside down two years ago, thinking that they, the children, would do better with a proper family than with her in the rundown town of Mobliz . But, for the two children older than seven, she gave them the choice as to whether they wished to continue to live with her or not. The boy, William, was twelve and had chosen to stay with her hesitantly, but, that was only because he thought deeply into the consequences of all the sides of a decision laid before him. The little girl, Lily, was nine and chose to go with her adopted mom instantly, no thought about consequences done or needed in her young eyes.

After all of that was settled, Terra and her two remaining children traveled town to town to check up on the rest of the children with their new families. Once satisfied with their conditions, she took her small family and moved to Tzen, where they still live today.

Now, William was almost fourteen and Lily was eleven, both attending a recently opened school in Tzen, the first school to be built since the fall of Kefka, after the one in Figaro, of course. The young woman was a "stay at home mom", no grand adventure or excitement in her life besides the joy that her two children brought her…well, that and the random visits from her friends, most of them being from a certain martial artist, who visited just about twice, even three times a week. Though he visited far more than her other friends, she looked forward to his visits the most and hated it when he left more than when any of the others left.

"Mama!" Lily rushed through the door to the green-haired woman who was standing staring out a window in the kitchen at the rain slowly coming down.

The young woman turned to the girl and smiled, "Welcome home, Lily." Lily ran over to her side and hugged the woman who returned the hug, "How was school today?"

The little girl started to shake, confusing the green-haired woman, "It was awful! William…William got in a fight!" Picking up on the tone of Lily's voice, she could finally tell that the shaking was from sobs, "These two boys started picking on me and I told them to go away but they didn't! and… and…" She rushed her sentence until the end where she finally broke down into sobs, the kind that you can't even get two words out after one before another one comes.

"Calm down, Lily." The woman said trying her best to hide the worry in her voice for the boy, "Where is William now?"

The child shook a few more times before eventually getting an answer out, "He….He's still at school…What…What if they really hurt him?" The young girl broke down again, "It would be all my fault!"

Gently, the woman pulled the girl off her. "Lily, I'm going to go get William, ok? He's going to be fine." The sentence was a promise to the girl in order to get her to stop crying, which slightly worked with the sobbing, but tears still fell down her face. "Stay here and start your homework, ok?" The girl nodded. Taking that answer, the woman walked hastily towards the front door then looked back at Lily, "It'll be ok. Just stay inside and do your work…William and I will be back before you know it." With that, she walked through the door way and closed the door.

The school wasn't all that far from her house, so, at her running pace, she managed to get to it in a matter of a few minutes. Before she entered the school yard, she heard shouts and chanting coming from behind the school. Frantically, she picked up her pace and rushed to the sound. Sure enough, when she rounded the corner of the school, many kids were grouped in a circle, the sounds of yelling and groans coming the open area in the middle of the circle. She made her way towards the group and caught a glimpse of the actual fight through a small opening in between two kids forming the circle.

"William!" She called out when she caught sight of the boy. His dirty blonde hair was a mess, there were visible bruises on his face and arms, not including what the woman couldn't see that was underneath his clothes. His lip was bleeding and his clothes were torn. The boy heard his name but said nothing, just continued to push at the two boys in front of him, who, though they had obviously taken damage, they were in nowhere near in bad a shape as William.

Deciding that calling his name wouldn't get him to look at her or get the other kids to stop, she made her way to the middle of the circle of kids. Once in the middle, she tried grabbing at the other two boys but they threw elbows and pushed her off, thinking she was just one of the circle kids. Finally irritated, she waved her hand in front of her face and held it out before her, magic practically glowing out of her hands, pointing it in between William and the other two, causing ice to erupt from the ground and come between the fighters, acting as a shield on William's part and a wall for the other boys.

The circle became quiet at the sight of magic, children stared in disbelief at the ice structure before them. After another moment of silence, whispers broke through the crowd.

"Did you see that?" One whispered to another.

"Of course I did!" The other replied.

"It was magic, wasn't it?"

"What else would it be?"

"But…that would mean…"

"That's…That's…"

"Terra Branford! Of course! Look, she has green hair, it has to be Terra!"

Terra sighed internally at the kids, while sternly staring at the boys that were fighting William. The two boys began to shake, now knowing who was before them.

"If-if…you-you hurt us, we'll t-tell our parents!" One stuttered out at Terra.

With a roll of her eyes, she turned to William who was trying to get up off the grown. She walked over and gently picked him up by his arms.

"Are you ok?" She asked him but he answered with a glare over at the two boys, "Let it go, William." Her voice was low and commanding, "Lily is worried sick about you. Let's go home."

Giving up, he allowed Terra to support his weight by holding onto his arms as they walked out the school yard. Part of her told her to stay and deal with the administration of the school, but she decided against it right now and to save it for tomorrow.

As they slowly walked back home, William sighed and dropped to his knees, causing Terra to nearly fall down with him. "William?" She asked concerned.

"I can't walk anymore…" He said after a long moment, "My body is aching."

Terra walked in front of him and held him upright by his shoulders, "We're just a few minutes from home, William. Can you try to make it?"

William tried to stand but fell down almost instantly out of weariness and cringed when his knees made contact with the ground. Terra, once again, held him upright and smoothed down his hair in an attempt to comfort him. She couldn't carry him home, he was just too big for that now, and she didn't want to use more magic to teleport them away…She thought about curing him right there, but he'd still have to rest and she couldn't promise that it would be easier for him to get up and walk.

"Terra?" She heard an alarmed voice say from behind her. Turning around quickly, she saw a familiar face that she had been thinking about previous to the past hour's events.

"Sabin! You couldn't have picked a more perfect time to visit!" She blushed at the sound of her sentence, "Not that it is never a perfect time for you to visit, that's not what I mean…." She trailed off and looked down at the tired William.

He smirked as she tried to fix her sentence, thinking that he knew she didn't mean it the way she thought it came across. His mind jumped from thought to thought, as it always did when he was with Terra, from how she looked to how she felt, that day and about him, or even if he looked "good" enough to be seen with her. With a shake of his head, he dismissed his thoughts and came back to the present situation, "What happened?" he asked, bending down to look at William who turned his face away from both of them, embarrassed by his situation.

"William got in a fight…" Terra frowned, "From what I understand, two boys were picking on Lily and, I suppose, William got mad and rushed in to help her. Is that right?" She questioned the boy who simply nodded, too tired to defend himself or explain the story further. "He's too tired to walk and I can't carry him." With a sigh, Terra glanced up at Sabin, still frowning.

"Hey, don't worry." Sabin said reassuringly to both of them, "As you've already said, I couldn't have picked a more perfect time to visit!" He smiled. "Alright, William, Can you get on my back?" William ignored Sabin and continued to look away.

"William Thomas." Terra frowned in disapproval at him, her tone match her frown.

Hearing her disappointment, the boy sighed and nodded his head, finally looking at the two of them.

"Terra, help him up." Sabin said as he turned around so that his back was facing them. Terra helped the boy onto Sabin's back who faked a cringe, "Geez, kid, you're getting heavier! Been working out or something?" William smiled at the man who then turned to Terra who was also smiling at him.

Once back at the house, Lily rushed towards the door to greet them, "William! Are you ok?" Her eyes were red from crying.

"Yeah, I'm ok…" He said weakly and forced a smile for his adopted sister.

"I'll heal you later tonight, first, let Sabin inspect the injuries so he can see how bad they are." Terra said as she rubbed the boys back in another comforting gesture.

Sabin took William up the stairs and to his room, Lily following close behind, as Terra went to the kitchen, remembering the soup she had been making before zoning out while watching the drizzle through the window and Lily running through the door to tell warn Terra about William. Taking the top off the pot, she inspected the soup to make sure nothing had gone wrong with it, thankful the stove hadn't caused a fire or something while Lily was home alone.

As she stirred in, she heard Sabin come down the steps but heard no feet follow after him. "I take it Lily is staying up there with William?"

"Yeah, she's really worried…" Sabin answered as he made his way to the kitchen.

"How was he?" She asked, not trying to hide her concern for William.

"I don't know…he didn't want me to examine any of his bruises or anything. He probably just wants to 'take it like a man'." Sabin laughed as he leaned against the counter, watching Terra and she continued to fix dinner. "Can't say I blame him, I was just like that when I was his age."

Terra smiled, "Oh, I'm sure you were. But, are you saying you're different now? If I remember, there were a few times during our journey that you refused to let me heal you, or anyone else for that matter."

Sabin shook his head, "I just didn't want to worry you…you had a lot on your mind then."

"It's not any different now." She said with a small frown.

There was a long pause as Sabin tried to figure out what he should say next. He settled on a simple, yet obvious question to start, "Is there something on your mind now?"

The petite mage sighed, "There's always something on my mind, Sabin…It just differs day to day."

Sabin couldn't understand where her new tone of voice came from, "What is it today?"

"Now or earlier today?" She asked.

"Both." He quickly answered.

"Earlier, I was thinking about you and how I love your visits, more so than anyone else." She smiled which he returned with his own.

"Nice to know you think of me."

"You say it as if it's hard for you to believe." Terra tilted her head as she watched him.

"Well…." He rubbed the back of his head, "I'll admit, there are times when certain thoughts about our relationship enter my head…doubts really. Like, sometimes I think I'm not good enough for you…then that leads to me thinking that maybe you know it and one day you'll find someone else that is better suited for you." He frowned, "Just…little things like that…"

Terra frowned over at him, "How could you even think things like that?" She said, truly shocked at his thoughts, "Why, if anything, you're too good for me! You're much more than anyone like me deserves."

Sabin walked over and stared sternly down at her, the face not matching his normal carefree behavior, "What do you mean 'anyone like you'? You mean someone who's far more compassionate than anyone I've ever know?"

Terra looked down, a light pink hue on cheeks due to their closeness, "I mean who's done all the bad things I have-"

Before she could finish, Sabin pulled her into a tight hug. She let out a whimper in surprise and looked up at Sabin surprise. He looked down at her with a sad smile, "You know none of the things you did at the Empire mean anything to me…You mean so much more to me than you know."

Terra laid her head against him, "As do you to me!"

There was a long silence before the two began to laugh quietly. It was the kind of nervous, self-pitying laugh that comes when you finally figure out something you've been thinking about for a while, even when someone else blatantly tells you the answer to your thoughts.

When the laughing stopped, Sabin kissed the top of her head and she sighed content.

"Sabin?"

"Yeah?"

"You said I was one of the most compassionate people you know." She said with a slight frown.

"Right." He nodded.

"Well…Uh…" She said as she shifted her weight uncomfortably, "When I saw those two boys hurting William…I, uh…I really wanted to Figara them both…Not once but many times…"

There was a pause then Sabin burst out laughing. "Is that what was on your mind recently?" She gave a slow nod onto his chest, causing him to burst out laughing again.

"_Oh yeah, she's a mom all right… Wonder what she'll do when she actually has kids of her own."_


End file.
